Public opinion and parliamentary action: Responsiveness of the German Bundestag in comparative perspective

Does the parliamentary behavior of members of parliament, parliamentary parties, and government correspond with the public's preferences regarding political issues? What conditions support the emergence of congruence between public opinion and public policy? These questions are central concerns of democratic theory In this paper, they are investigated empirically for the activities in the federal German legislature, the German Bundestag, between 1949 and 1990. For this purpose, 94 time series of public opinion polls have been combined with content analysis of more than 3,000 parliamentary documents (e.g. parliamentary questions, committee reports). If public opinion about a policy matter changes, approximately 60 percent of the respective parliamentary actions are congruent with the direction of opinion change. The congruence between public opinion and public policy is greatest for opinion changes in a conservative direction when the political status quo is supported. Even more important than the direction of opinion change is the public's majority opinion at the time of parliamentary action.